William C. Flook, The Examiner
2007-10-05 07:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

WASHINGTON -

The troubled Dulles Rail extension won’t receive an essential $900 million in federal funding unless a major schedule and budget dispute is resolved, federal officials warned Thursday. Loss of the federal money, local transportation officials have consistently said, would likely doom the project.

A letter from the Federal Transit Administration to Project Director Sam Carnaggio highlights a critical disagreement on how long the project will take to complete. While the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which is managing the project, claims it can open the initial 11.6 miles of track by the end of 2012, the transit agency argues that a realistic completion date could be as late as early 2014.

Whether the FTA can approve the funding hinges on a formula that weighs the rail’s expected price tag against how many riders it will serve. By that standard, the rail already ranks as one of the least efficient transit lines under consideration by the FTA. With costs expected to escalate 4.25 percent each year, the schedule dispute could make or break the rail project.

“That’s going to have to be resolved,” FTA spokesman Wes Irvin said. “Our independent engineers have presented a different schedule than what [the airports authority] has agreed to, so that affects the bottom line.”

MWAA and Virginia officials recently trimmed $306 million from the new track’s budget in hopes of meeting FTA’s cost/benefit threshold, though the FTA has yet to approve those 19 cuts.

It’s unlikely the federal government will revise its timeline estimates. MWAA and Virginia officials would then be left with a choice of revising their schedule and driving up cost estimates — which could doom the project — or find another way to cut costs. Any cuts that undermine the number of riders could also hurt the extension’s chances of approval.

“The date [the FTA] believes the project will be complete will win at the end of the day; it trumps theirs,” Irvin said.

MWAA spokeswoman Tara Hamilton said the agency continues to work with the FTA and still believes its schedule is viable.

“It’s obvious that hard work remains; the tooth fairy isn’t going to make that problem disappear,” said Dana Kauffman, a Metro board member and Fairfax County supervisor. “Cost is time and time means more cost.”

wflook@dcexaminer.com